the fiscal cliff is fixable, but every day washington fails to make a deal, more damage is being doing. john king, ken rogoff and diane swan, chief economist at mezaro financial. john, right now, this is more politics than the economy. some people are saying don't sweat it. the threat of going over the fiscal cliff is overblown. it will get done. an 11th hour deal. john, as you read the politics at play, what do you see? >> i see both sides digging in. you've just played the president saying i want that rate hike. the republicans are saying mr. president, we'll give you the revenues, but not through a rate hike, but the president believes he won the election and he's upped the ante. says he wants twice as much in tax revenues than a year and a half ago, so the president believes he has the higher ground. i think maybe the democrats have a deeper trench, if you will. they have public on their side. but if you talk to people in washington, there's still this sense that at a last minute, reason will prevail, but there's not a lot of optimism. you know this and my colleagues know this, mor